Mount Skull

Heroic age of Antarctic exploration
A craft defies the seas alone
Long voyage of discovery
To a continent unknown.

On board, only veterans of adventure
Seasoned experts in the field
Vying to become the first
To expose what's unrevealed.

Approaching rugged
Barren and white shores
Enveloped in the black of night
A grim, glacial wasteland
Their final destination in sight.

Provisional encampment established
Now fixated on the goal
All spirits high
To unearth the buried
Hidden secrets of the pole.

Wind-lashed and broken
By extreme temperatures
Glaciers and crevasses
Blizzards to endure.

Plodding through persistent fog
Poor visibility
On eroded horizons
Looms an impossibility.

Massive range, monstrous peaks
Menacing, fragile
Howling dogs, crew in awe
As they behold Mount Skull.

Fears cast aside
On to an unveiled passageway
Battered and beaten by the storm
Shelter found inside the cave.

Astonishing Interior
A labyrinth unfolds
Repulsive rotten stench
Sinister shadows.

Descending, sweltering
Phosphorescent walls
Troglodytes, dreadful shrieks
Echo in huge halls.

So long.

Only one, may escape
No companions left
Running from that grotesque thing
Lurking in the depths.

Decades passed
Since their disappearance
And then his frozen corpse was found
A body, well-preserved by severe frost
His logbook, had fallen on the ground.

An expression of terror
Covers a tortured face
Telling the tale of death and pain
The mountain shaped
Like a human skull
Well, that mystery will always remain.